Rice Social Dance Society

Swing class tonight

Please note that although we met for the Sampler class at 7:00 while Terry and Van were teaching, Richard can come earlier so we are reverting to our original schedule!

6:30-7:30 Sampler class (Richard)
7:30-8:00 open dance time
8:00-9:00 Beginner Lindy Hop

Swing Sampler

The next three weeks of the Swing Sampler class (ie. up till our four day weekend) will be taught by Richard Lyders. Richard came to our swing class last semester quite a bit, so you might know him — he’s got spikey hair and he’s a really great dancer. Richard has been dancing with the Hepcats (the Houston Swing Dance Society’s performance team) for several years now.

Plus, Chloe, who will be teaching for two weeks after the break, will also be there, so we really get two for the price of one this round.

Beginner Lindy

Lindy Hop is the “grandfather” of all swing styles. This is the original dance from the 20s. It’s an 8-count dance and is traditionally danced to big band music (swing and jazz) but is extremely versatile and can be danced to anything from R&B to Matchbox 20 to 80s pop to… Well, you get my point.

What’s the difference from the class we’ve been teaching? Jitterbug is a six-count dance, and basically a somewhat simplified version of the Lindy Hop. The basic move is not the same, though you can mix Jitterbug steps into Lindy and vice versa (unless you’re at a competition, where they care about these things). More importantly, they both use the same lead-follow. In our Lindy class we will still spend time working on lead and follow, but in the context of learning the new dance style, techniques, moves, and footwork.